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Uncle Raven's Super Happy Fun Time Carnival
Uncle Raven's Super Happy Fun Time Carnival is a 2017 album written and produced by Paul Shapera. It is the second act of The Ballad of Lost Hollow. It features Paul Shapera as Raven and Hank, Lauren Osborn as Helen and The Floozies, Psyche Chimere as Han-Mi, Rhys Owen as Henry and Eimear O'Riordan as Tunnel Girl. Plot The album opens with Tunnel Girl wandering in the tunnels beneath New Albion. She tells a story of broken people gathering where she played a broadcast of Miss Helen's Weird West Cabaret each week, but one week there was no broadcast everyone had gotten used to, yet another broadcast. Thus, she plays it (The Tunnels Beneath New Albion 1). The next track introduced Raven, an eccentric and devious character who owns a strange sort of carnival. Raven is immediately shown as both ruthless and immensely hurt. Raven is accompanied by a group of Floozies as back vocals. The cast of Weird West Cabaret arrives (Raven's Opening). The cast meets Raven and they debate staying or trying to leave. With all that had gone wrong in the Cabaret, Han-Mi says the Carnival is all they've got. Raven invites the cast to give him their pain. He wants them to stay as one of the has the Gift. Raven reveals the Carnival is locked in its own space and he is trapped in it (The Carousel). Raven tells a story of a woman with a tumor the size of her head. She's staying alive as the tumor won't let her die and wants her to go on. He expands to say they've got many freaks and geeks with grotesque souls. He shows the cast a mermaid and tents containing mazes made out of tents. He finally reveals that there are AIs messing with the cast's lives. He says he knows of them and they had been keeping an eye on Lloyd. Helen interrupts him and asks who Lloyd is, to which Raven says: "The only man I ever truly loved" (Tour Our Grounds). ]] Raven commands the Floozies to put everyone but Helen in the Hall of Mirrors where they would get lost in their sadness for at least a couple of days. Han-Mi remembers being a long lost child and has a flashbacks of pain (The Hall of Mirrors). Tunnel Girl expands on her story, revealing she is Helen's sister. She tells of their abusive father and how he used to beat Helen until one day he struck her. Helen used the opportunity and stabbed him - since then they lived on the streets, which she says was good and they got by until all the talk of the voices, robots speaking in Helen's mind (The Tunnels Beneath New Albion 2). In the next track Raven has a long dialogue with Helen with the help of The Floozies who add questions, making him go on. He tells of the Gift and Lloyd and how they came to be. He tries to explain the Gift to Helen and tell her she has it, too. As the track spirals, Raven announces that despite preferring the company of men, he also like the company of women when they were as special as Helen. He offers to teach her how to use the Gift, her ability to influence the narrative she's a part of and he ultimately asks her to marry him. This is accompanied with leitmotifs calling back to The Dolls of New Albion such as "Be my angel" and "Some day you learn and you'll burn like my heart...". As Raven calls for the wedding bells he realizes something is not right and asks Helen if there is someone else she's interested in and jealously claims that there is (See Our Show). In the following, half a minute long dialogue track Han-Mi calls for Henry who says he can hear her but cannot find her in the maze. He says it's another recursive look variation (referencing the loop that was their Cabaret, repeating itself each week). Han-Mi tells him to stop trying to find a way through the maze, it cannot be solved, but she says there is a way out since they already broke free from a similar trap (Back at the Hall of Mirrors). ]] Raven asks Helen to stay with him, but Helen ignores his proposals. Instead, Helen please with Han-Mi, Henry and Hank to stay alive. She tries to tell them that Raven is dangerous and mad but that they must not break and must endure till it ends as Raven will eventually make a mistake. Raven continues seducing Helen, asking her if she wanted him. At that moment, Han-Mi breaks the maze and stands between Raven and Helen. She threatens Raven into letting Helen be. Only then Raven realizes he made a mistake and it was not Helen who had the gift and broke the Cabaret loop, but Han-Mi. She tries to force Raven in opening the door and letting them all go from the Carnival, but Raven briefly starts to ask Han-Mi to stay and embrace her gift, but realizes that ship had sailed. Just as Raven tries to say that they should know it's not him who locked the door but the AIs, Hank interrupts and breaks down. Hank starts remembering and a familiar line comes from his lips: "Do you wish to initiate conflict?" (The Big Tent Show). Hank has a solo track where he fights his impulse to initiate the conflict. He is revealed to be an AI planted into the Cabaret by the other AIs. He reveals they are vicious creatures and that he has a gun and a purpose which is waking up. He starts remembering the life before he became an AI and the love he once had. He pledges to protect the rest of the cast even if it means he has to protect them against himself. He puts a gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger (Hello AI). The door into the tunnels is open and the crew leaves. Raven goes with them and closes the story. He stops and lets the crew go away. Then, he meets Tunnel Girl who is looking for her sister, Helen. Raven tells her he could take her where she was moments earlier. Then he pauses and asks if she had even been to a carnival (See You All Again Soon). Cast and Characters Paul Shapera as "Raven", the host of the carnival Lauren Osborn as "Miss Helen", the host of the cabaret mistaken by Raven as the blossoming post-human Psyche Chimere as "Han-Mi", the true blossoming post-human Rhys Owen as "Henry", one of the cabaret performers escaping the CU Paul Shapera as "Hank", another performer escaping the CU Eimear O'Riordan as "Shira", Helen's homeless sister still living in New Albion Cover art by Sarah DeBuck Soundtrack Trivia * The album is dedicated to Paul's best friend, Shaun Rolly. Paul Shapera was writing the songs when Shaun died. Paul scrapped most of the story, except Raven's Opening, and started again. Their friendship was inspiration for the relationship between Raven and Lloyd Allen. * Raven was created by Paul Shapera and Shaun Rolly. In fact, Shaun was the one who came up with the name. * Paul Shapera is not credited among the performers. Instead, the credits state The Sheriff was voice by Hank Hernandez and Raven was voiced by Raven (which are respective character names).